Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
Else should we not, right well we wo [. . .] ,
have so our selves behaved.
We should have mourn’d, we should have turn’d
from sin at thy reproof,
And been more wise through thine advice
for our own Souls behoof.
CLXI
But natures light shin’d not so bright
to teach us the right way:
We might have lov’d it, & well improv’d it,
and yet have gone astray.
The Judge most high makes this reply;
you ignorance pretend,
Dimness of sight, and want of light
your course Heav’n-ward to bend:
CLXII
How came your mind to be so blind?
I once you knowledge gave,
Clearness of sight, and judgement right;
who did the same deprave?
If to your cost you have it lost,
and quite defac’d the same;
Your own desert hath caus’d your smart,
you ought not me to blame.
CLXIII
Your selves into a pit of wo
your own transgressions led:
If I to none my grace had shown,
who had been injured?
If to a few, and not to you,
I shew’d a way of life,
My Grace so free, you clearly see,
gives you no ground of strife.
CLXIV
‘Tis [. . .] ain to tell, you wot full well,
if you in time had known
Your Misery and Remedy,
your actions had it shown.
You, sinful crew, have not been true
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